This invention relates to a method and an apparatus for opening and cleaning fiber material and has at least one beater cylinder which is supported in a horizontal orientation above grid bars, grids, or the like and underneath a closed casing and which is provided with fingers or pins. The apparatus has inlet and outlet openings arranged such that the fiber material is advanced to and removed from the cylinder in a direction parallel to the cylinder axis. Further, a deflector plate is arranged above the cylinder.
According to a known apparatus, two drums are enclosed in a common casing of predetermined shape. The cotton is drawn into the apparatus pneumatically and is driven by the drums over the grid resulting in a stripping of the adhering waste. Thereafter, the fiber material is thrown by one of the drums upwardly against the casing and is braked there by a regulating gate. Thereafter, the material again falls on the drums to be subjected to a second pass about the drums. By the beating effect of the drums a significant amount of dust accumulates in the air in the casing. It is a disadvantage of this arrangement that the dust is entrained with the fiber tufts and is thus reintroduced into the operating zone of the drums in the cleaning zone.